I like Strongpoint's Nautilus but I feel that it could use some changes.
Base Design: Nautilus Submarine Base - Variant B(Variant A, for reference:)
Nautilus submarine base
First X-COM base is a large nuclear aircraft carrier submarine. It is the largest submarine ever built with its own runaway and hangars for several aircrafts adapted to launch from it. It also has a plenty of living room, large storage area, workshop and laboratory. Finally, it is equipped with state of art ground to air missiles.
Japan did carrier submarines in WW2, we can do the same but far better. It is far less vulnerable than surface carrier.
The Variant B is largely the same as the Variant A. However, it is equipped with no ground to air missiles - we feel that it'd distract too much from the focus of the design and wouldn't be ever useful against any alien spacecraft designed to attack our main base. It has plenty of space for cargo and future expansion, and its runways' and hangars' numbers and size are extensive though it must of course surface to launch and receive aircraft. It also has the capability to act as a mothership for smaller submarines. It should be capable of going very deep underwater and staying underwater for extended periods of time. Speed is to be sacrificed to keep the difficulty low - cargo and logistics and the like would be handled by boats/submarines/aircraft/whatever moving things between the Nautilus and other bases, while the Nautilus stays deep in the sea.
If the exact location is a concern, it should be put in the Atlantic sea for easier access to both the Americas, Europe, Africa, while not being cut off from Asia and Australia.
Or in other words, our base is a very giant carrier-submarine in the Atlantic.
Design: Tactical Awareness VisorDesigned to be able to be equipped by itself or embedded in any helmet, the TAV is an Augmented Reality HUD for our troops.
Using numerous small cameras - such as infrared, visible, and the like - combined with a small integrated computer, the TAV can help our operatives' awareness in the field. The
main use is target recognition. Through heat, shape, and more interesting techniques like looking for pulses, the TAV can very reliable detect anything it judges as a living or relevant entity. These entities are highlighted based on familiarity - fellow operatives get green
(no rookies shooting other rookies), humans get blue, unknowns get yellow, and confirmed threats get red. In addition to very easy recognizing of targets, the varied cameras ensure that it works regardless of visibility -
NO MORE NIGHT MISSIONS the aliens can't hide in the dark.
It also has other functions deemed relevant like current mission objective, the status of any networked devices (like "ammo in gun"), radio status, and anything else deemed relevant. But the main feature is target recognition and highlighting, which should greatly help in any case;
especially against a stealthy and unknown foe.
TL;DR: An augmented reality HUD that highlights targets+allies in different colors and has some other miscellaneous functions. Open for improvement in the future too.
((References:
MS HoloLens - A commercial - and
very cheap relative to us - AR device;
Automated Target Recognition - just general info on target recognition stuff;
Kinect - Not AR, but is also commercial, "reliably" recognizes humans,
can sense pulses through the skin, skeletal recognition, and more all while being a fraction of the price of even the HoloLens; and more. The ideas of "target recognition" and "augmented reality HUD" are already fairly present in modern culture and civilian+military tech.))
BASE DESIGN
Sunken Atlantis(1):Urist
TRAWLER (0):
Nautilus (2): Strongpoint, Blood Librarian
Nautilus Variant B (1): Chiefwaffles
REGULAR DESIGN
Magnos (0):
Swordfish (2) Strongpoint, Blood_librarian
Tactical Awareness Visor (1): Chiefwaffles
The Variant B is
more-or-less the same thing as the original but without the missiles. We can design proper ones later or just use actual interceptor craft, but putting missiles in the design is going to add to difficulty without ever being useful. The rest of it is just things which I feel are assumed by most but I personally wanted to make more clear so we don't miss anything when Ebbor does the design.